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326.91(474)"17/18" 326.91:340.134"17/18"(474) LEGAL REGULATION OF THE ABOLITION OF SERFDOM IN BALTIC GOVERNORATES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN EARLY 19TH CENTURY: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND, REALISATION, SPECIFIC FEATURES AND EFFECT Valdis Blūzma Dr. hist., Professor Turiba University (Riga, Latvia) [email protected] Abstract This presentation is devoted to significant reforms - abolition of serfdom at the second decade of 19th century in three Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire. The author analyses the background to the abolition of serfdom noting that in this case not only the struggle of Estonian and Latvian peasants for their rights, but also the activities of liberal circles of Baltic German elite played a significant role. Abolition of serfdom in Baltic governorates was supported by liberally minded Russian emperor Alexander I. Landtag (Diet of knighthood) of every Baltic governorate adopted analogous Peasantry Laws – Estonian in 1816, Courland in 1817 and Livonian in 1819 which then were confirmed by emperor. These laws established terms of liberation of peasants, transitional period regulation, civil and administrative law of peasants, peasant courts and their competence, law of procedure, offenses against rules of administrative law. These reforms had a compromise character, because liberation of the peasants was performed basing on condition that all the farmland remains in the ownership of the landlords. The relationship between landowners and peasants further was regulated on basis of free lease contract. Initially the economic situation of peasants was worsened, because landlords could demand corvée and payments in kind as rent which was not limited by law as it was before. However, peasantry laws issued for Baltic governorates in the middle of 19th century prescribed mandatory selling of farmland to peasants, promoting the formation of the class of Latvian and Estonian bourgeoisie. Keywords: abolition of serfdom, liberation of peasantry, peasantry laws, transitional period, lease contract, limited rights Introduction The serfdom was a legal status of majority of peasants in Medieval Europe who were bound to the plot of soil (glebae adscriptii - Latin) or to manorial area. They were in feudal dependency of their landlords, be subjected to their administrative and judicial power.1 The 1 Valters, P. comp., Valsts un tiesību vēsture jēdzienos un terminos. Divergens, Rīga, 2001, p. 50; Serfdom. In: Encyclopaedia Britannica. 24.06.2016. URL=https://www.britannica.com/topic/serfdom. Accessed 10 Faculty of Law, Goce Delcev University, Shtip, Republic of N. Macedonia institute of serfdom started to form in Eastern Europe later than in Western Europe - in 15th century in Livonian Confederation and Russia. It was codified for the first time in Livonia in the end of 16th century by Riga lawyer David Hilchen.2 Abolition of a serfdom by adoption of the Peasantry Laws of Baltic governorates in the first half of 19th century is a vivid example of the strong impact of the legal reform initiated by a conservative political regime on social transformation of society and birth of Latvian and Estonian political nations through formation of class of rural bourgeoisie. Increasing of a political activity of these nations, put on the agenda the question of their self-determination, the successful solving of which was stimulated by political outcomes of 1917 Russian Revolution and World War I. This historical result of the reform of 19th century was not forecasted neither by Russian imperial elites, nor by German elites of the Baltic governorates, which perceived the reforms as appropriate to their economic and social interests and therefore strongly supported them. 1. Changes in legal status of peasants in Baltic governorates before abolition of serfdom (18th – early 19th century) After Great Northern War (1700 – 1721) in which Russia triumphed, Sweden as a loser was forced to give up to Russia the territories of Swedish Livonia and Estonia. In 1795 the Russian Empire annexed also a territory of the Duchy of Courland in the course of the Third Partition of Poland. So, all three territories ruled by Baltic Germans from 13th century found themselves under power of the Russian Empire for the next 120 years. The first half of 18th century under rule of Russia was a hard period for Estonian and Livonian peasants, because their legal status substantially worsened. Baltic German historian Alexander von Tobien had characterised the situation of Baltic peasants of that epoch in the following words: “The power of the landlords over the persons subordinated to them was almost unlimited. (..) Peasant rights to land were unsecured, corvée unlimited. (...) Cases of unfree persons sales without land occurred so often: yes, it occurred even that the serfs were openly auctioned.”3 The deterioration of the legal position of peasants in the Baltic governorates in the first half of 18th century was determined by a number of factors - nearly total lack of rights of serfs in Russia, the reception of Roman law in states of Germany, which facilitated the transfer of Roman slave status elements to the serfs, as well as, the economic conditions after the Great Northern War and aspiring of Baltic German nobility to strengthen its economic and political hegemony in Baltic region. An important document showing the understanding of the legal status of peasants of that time by the Baltic German knighthood was the so-called “Rosen’s Declaration”.4 May 2019; Švābe, A. Dzimtsbūšana. In: Latviešu konversācijas vārdnīca. IV sēj., A.Gulbis, Rīga, 1929 – 1930, column 6394 – 6406. 2 See Hilchen's code text in: Hoffmann, T., Der Landrechtsentwurf David Hilchens von 1599. Ein livländisches Rechtszeugnis polnischer Herrschaft. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2007, pp. 185 – 282. 3 Tobien, A., Die Agrargesetzgebung Livlands im 19. Jahrhundert. Bd. 1. Puttkammer & Mühlbrecht, Berlin, 1899, pp. 106, 110 – 111. 4 Ritterschafts Memorial. In: Merkel, G., Die freien Letten und Esthen. E.I.G. Hartmann, Riga, 1820, pp. 118 – 128. 576 6th INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE: SOCIAL CHANGES IN THE GLOBAL WORLD, Shtip, September 05-06 2019 Original title of this document prepared on 30th of November 1739 was “Ritterschafts Memorial” and it was an answer to question asked by Russian State Justice Collegium on scope of rights of Livonian landlords to their serfs. O. von Rosen as residing Landesraat – representative of Livonian knighthood declared that the native peoples of Baltic region lost their freedom and came under yoke of serfdom with the first conquest of the land by the knights of the German Order, and that vanquished were given to estates as "homines proprii".5 In fact, studies of history show that this statement of Rosen was false, because indigenous peoples were personally free not less than two hundred years after conquest. Rosen made a conclusion that “if, in this way, the peasants with their person and body are completely subordinated to their lords and belong to them”, so no doubt that their chattels and belongings belong to their lords as well. The extent of the duties and corvée of the peasants is not an inviolable rule of the government, but only depends on the recognition and pleasure of landlords. “When the knights determine the duties of their serfs on their own discretion, it goes without saying that knights also have the power to increase, reduce, and modify property of their serfs at their own discretion”. Regarding to penalties for peasants, Rosen argued that in former times the knights had the right to sentence on the life and death of the peasants, but these rights have been voluntarily waived by the knighthood, preserving home punishment rights which are recognised by government and applied by landlords with moderation. In fact, Livonian knighthood unlike knighthood of Duchy of Courland never received the privilege to jus vitae et necis of their peasants. Rosen’s Declaration tried to prove that the serfs historically had a legal status liken to status of Roman slave. Acceptable is thought of Latvian historian A.J.Blumbergs that Baltic German knighthood aspired to institutionalization of serfdom by optimal from its viewpoint legal construction.6 Highly likely that Rosen hoped that his memorial would be accepted by State Justice Collegium with legal effect, but it did not accept it. Despite of this, the courts of Livonian governorate applied “Rosen’s Declaration” in cases of peasant disputes with their landlords. One another attempt of Baltic German elite in the thirties of 18th century “to bond the peasants to the land by changing their legal status from that of serf to de facto slave”7 was made by Livonian landtag (Diet of knighthood) through codification of local law. Legislative commission established on order of Peter II of 1728 completed its work in 1737 by submitting to landtag a draft-code “Knighthood and Land Law of the Duchy of Livonia”. It was adopted by landtag and sent to Senate in St. Petersburg for final approval, but without any success. The codifiers characterized the legal status of the peasants in Part IV of draft-code “Property Law and Law of Obligations” as immovable property of landlord unalienable from the main property – a manor. So, for the first time the serf was characterized as object, that obviously pointed to status of a slave.8 From the second half of the century, the impact of Enlightenment ideas on the Baltic and Russian society increased. In the context of the theory of natural law, the notions of inalienable 5 Vīgrabs, J., “Rozena deklarācijas” sastādīšanas gaita un viņas vēsturiskā nozīme, Izglītības Ministrijas Mēnešraksts, No. 12, 1925, pp. 581 – 582. 6 See also: Blumbergs, A.J., The Nationalization of Latvians and the Issue of Serfdom: The Baltic German Literary Contribution in the 1780s and 1790s. Cambria Press, Amhurst, 2008, pp. 56 – 57. 7 Blumbergs, ibid., p.